Billable hours?

[Tossica]

Anyone else here work in IT on a "billable" hours scale? If so, how many hours do you bill per week on average and if there is a bonus type system in place, how many hours much you hit to get your bonus?

[Jay]

So...who answers the questions in "Ask Tossica" when Tossica is asking?

[10sun]

It isn't: Ask Tossica?
It is: Ask Tossica!

More of a command where Tossica is required to ask questions.

I bill ~25 hours a week, bonus is anything over 40 hours a week. I work in a slightly different field though doing data analysis /reports rather than hardware / software installation/support.

-Adam

[Tossica]

It isn't: Ask Tossica?
It is: Ask Tossica!

More of a command where Tossica is required to ask questions.

I bill ~25 hours a week, bonus is anything over 40 hours a week. I work in a slightly different field though doing data analysis /reports rather than hardware / software installation/support.

-Adam

You don't get a bonus unless you bill over 40hrs a week?

[Tikker]

where I am, we don't get "bonus" per se, but rather overtime

If I get called anytime after normal office hours (8-4:45) I get paid minimum 2 hours of OT (double time, ie I get a 5 minute phone call, I earn 4hours regular pay)

if I work anything over 35 hours in a week, all those hours are billed a double time

[Tossica]

But all your time is billable right? I work about 40 hours a week but I only bill for an average of 25 of those. The rest is spent in driving, learning, doing sales engineer stuff for potential clients, "warranty" work (ie cleaning up install messes, etc), sitting around waiting for stuff to do.

[10sun]

You should always bill either for your time driving to the client or back to the office from the client's location.

As Tikker stated, my "bonus" is overtime.

[Tossica]

I bill 30 min max driving time one way. Most of our clients are within 30 min. We never bill for the trip back. It's pretty standard.

[Tikker]

seems odd to me

any of my time that's taken up on work is billed for

single time during regular hours, double time after that

doesn't matter if it's windshield time or not

if it's a company vehicle that is

if it's my own vehicle, I charge time plus mileage

[Lyion]

Anyone else here work in IT on a "billable" hours scale? If so, how many hours do you bill per week on average and if there is a bonus type system in place, how many hours much you hit to get your bonus?

I do. If you have specific questions, PM me.

[Gaazy]

Yeah, Im not in IT, but I dont see how you dont bill for the time you are drivin. Any minute myself or any of my service guys are out of the shop going to a jobsite, its billed for with the labor hours. And we just pay overtime for any hours worked over 40 for the week (or over 8 hours a day)

[Tossica]

Yeah, Im not in IT, but I dont see how you dont bill for the time you are drivin. Any minute myself or any of my service guys are out of the shop going to a jobsite, its billed for with the labor hours. And we just pay overtime for any hours worked over 40 for the week (or over 8 hours a day)

Because there are several other companies just like us that would be willing to take the hit on the drive time to get the contracts. It's standard. 30 minute max bill one way for each client each day. It rarely takes me more than 30 min to get somewhere and if it's a short call, I bill for my time driving to my next client as well. No biggie.

[Tikker]

obviously the local market will dictate that


what actually prompted the initial question? just idle curiosity, or was there something else behind it?

[Tossica]

They are setting a bonus system where I work based on billable hours and I am wondering how many hours the average engineer like myself bills on a weekly basis in other markets.

[Gaazy]

Yeah I guess you're right, its all based on what the rest of the market does. Its just standard here and thats how everyone does it.

also out of curiosity, what do you charge in labor per hour? My charge is $80/hour most of the time, and thats what we charge as shop labor too when we do a rebuild

[Tikker]

$89/hour here

[Tossica]

$145 hourly for standard network stuff, $160 for Cisco.

[Evermore]

when I was contacting I billed for everything. Anything over 40 hrs is billed at an overtime rate, travel is billed at a travel rate etc.

we varied between 140 and 165 an hr depending on what you contracted for.